Archive

davecb writes “Rick Falkvinge reports today that the Swedish Pirate Party has laid charges against at least Visa, MasterCard, and PayPal before the Finansinspektionen , for refusing to pass on money owed to Wikileaks. The overseer of bank licenses notes (in translation) that ‘The law states, that if there aren’t legal grounds to deny a payment service, then it must be processed.’”

nonprofiteer writes “Two years ago, Visa, MasterCard, PayPal, Western Union and Bank of America cut off all funding to WikiLeaks. A group of free information advocates wants to prevent a similar financial blockade on information from happening again. Daniel Ellsberg, John Perry Barlow, and EFF staffers are founding the Freedom of the Press Foundation, an org that will raise money and channel it to edgy media groups that might suffer from a WikiLeaks-style embargo. When donors give to the Foundation, they can choose to have their funding passed on to any media group under the Foundation’s umbrella (currently WikiLeaks, Muckrock, The National Security Archives and UpTake). That strategy aims to make it harder to cut funding to any of those organizations, or any added in the future. And because the site is encrypted, donors who worry about being identified as giving to any particularly controversial group can do so without being identified. It’s like Tor for charitable giving.”

mpawlo writes “Mr Julian Assange of Wikileaks fame, has, according to The Age, confirmed his intention to run for the Australian Senate in 2013. He will also form a Wikileaks political party. From the article: ‘Mr Assange said plans to register an Australian WikiLeaks party were ”significantly advanced”. He indicated he would be a Senate candidate, and added that “a number of very worthy people admired by the Australian public” have indicated their availability to stand for election on a party ticket. Mr Assange said he is able to fulfill the requirements to register as an overseas elector in either New South Wales or Victoria and that he will shortly take a “strategic decision” about which state he would be a Senate candidate for.’”

mpawlo writes “Mr Julian Assange of Wikileaks fame, has, according to The Age, confirmed his intention to run for the Australian Senate in 2013. He will also form a Wikileaks political party. From the article: ‘Mr Assange said plans to register an Australian WikiLeaks party were ”significantly advanced”. He indicated he would be a Senate candidate, and added that “a number of very worthy people admired by the Australian public” have indicated their availability to stand for election on a party ticket. Mr Assange said he is able to fulfill the requirements to register as an overseas elector in either New South Wales or Victoria and that he will shortly take a “strategic decision” about which state he would be a Senate candidate for.’”

hypnosec writes “A hacker who claims to be a member of the hacking collective Anonymous has revealed that the hacktivist group is working on a Wikileaks-like service dubbed Tyler and that it will be launched on December 21. The Anonymous member revealed that the service will be decentralized and will be based on peer-to-peer service, unlike Wikileaks, thus making Tyler rather immune to closure and raids. The site will serve as a haven for whistleblowers, where they can publish classified documents and information. The hacker said in an emailed interview that ‘Tyler will be P2P encrypted software, in which every function of a disclosure platform will be handled and shared by everyone who downloads and deploys the software.’” That sounds like a lot to live up to. Decentralized, attack-resistant and encrypted all sound nice, but I’m curious both about the funding it would take, and whether it matches Wikileaks’ own security.

Hugh Pickens writes “The Guardian reports that members of computer hacker collective Anonymous have distanced themselves from WikiLeaks, claiming the whistleblowers’ site has become too focused on the personal tribulations of its founder, Julian Assange. A statement linked from the Anonymous Twitter account, AnonymousIRC, described WikiLeaks as ‘the one man Julian Assange show,’ and complained that the website implemented a paywall seeking donations from users who wanted access to millions of leaked documents. ‘The idea behind WikiLeaks was to provide the public with information that would otherwise be kept secret by industries and governments. Information we strongly believe the public has a right to know,’ said the statement on behalf of Anonymous. The dispute could starve WikiLeaks of potentially newsworthy leaks in the future, as some of Wikileaks’ recent disclosures – including the Stratfor emails – are alleged to have come from Anonymous.”

WikiLeaks has for years relied on donated time and money to publish the scoops that it has; now, concealment writes “As of Wednesday night, the secret-spilling site now shows a ‘paywall’ to any visitor who clicks on one of its leaked documents, including the 13,374 emails from the private intelligence firm Stratfor that it published earlier in the day along with the teaser that the messages regarded presidential candidate Mitt Romney. The pop-up message that blocks access to the site’s content shows a video parodying Barack Obama’s stump speeches and asking visitors to instead ‘vote for WikiLeaks’ by making a donation to the site or buying its promotional gear like tote bags and hoodies.”

First time accepted submitter menno_h writes “WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange says he has hired lawyers to investigate how to sue Prime Minister Julia Gillard for defamation.” Assange “says comments made by Ms Gillard in 2010 that WikiLeaks acted illegally in releasing US diplomatic cables have affected the viability of his organisation. ‘Mastercard Australia, in justifying why it has made a blockade that prevents any Australian Mastercard holder donating to WikiLeaks, used that statement by Julia Gillard,’ he said.”

First time accepted submitter Cute and Cuddly writes in with some new Julian Assange news. “The U.S. military has designated Julian Assange and WikiLeaks as enemies of the United States — the same legal category as the al-Qaeda terrorist network and the Taliban insurgency. Declassified US Air Force counter-intelligence documents, released under US freedom-of-information laws, reveal that military personnel who contact WikiLeaks or WikiLeaks supporters may be at risk of being charged with ‘communicating with the enemy.’”